Thursday, November 10, 2011

Yoga Thursday

That's a silly title. I can't think of anything else. I was thinking yogic Thursday and a Thursday yogi but those don't really make sense, so we'll just go with that!

This is my shirt today -


How fun is that!!!! I got it at the expo from the Savannah Yoga Center. Now we just need to make one for Greenville!!! 


Sunday after the race, I decided to go and visit the Savannah Yoga Center to take a class.



This is the class I took - 

Flow Yoga Level 1 & 2

Yoga
Daily Classes
for continuing beginnersThis class is for students well practiced in Level 1 poses seeking to expand, refine and develop their yoga practice at more subtle levels. This class continues to focus on the basic alignment of the standing poses and introduces a broader range of sitting poses, twists, forward and back extensions and inversions.





What I will say is that I was grateful that I found a yoga place and grateful they had a class I could attend. The studio was 2.1 miles from the hotel and I walked there which was nice to do early on a Sunday morning. As I continued to walk, I realized this was taking longer than expected, so I did some speed walking too! I got in a little workout. They were nice when I arrived, sweating from how fast I had to go, and I got a discount for being an RnR runner!!

The class itself was ok. The teacher talked A LOT and it reminded me of what Karen always says, you don't have to go through every single movement and tell every single thing they need to be doing and thinking about, just pick one or two things and observe. I wish he would've done that more BUT I think I was also in a beginner class. Many times, I usually feel like I need to be in the beginner class because I don't think of myself as intermediate, but this was very very very beginner.

I left there feeling a little looser and a little better - not as much pain and soreness from the race and that was my goal, so I got exactly what I needed. Next time I visit, I will go there again - maybe just try a different class.

As I was walking back from class, I was thinking about how I just felt like I was at home in Savannah. It's a place I've only been twice but it feels so comfortable. It is SO beautiful and I took some pictures along the way.


Forsyth Park




the fountain in Forsyth park - this is where the race ended




the church - it is beautiful on the inside




I couldn't get the whole view with my phone




just a random street but it's so beautiful, I had to take a picture



I get to go to yoga tonight at 5:30 and I'm super excited!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Back to training - vegas edition

So according to my plan yesterday, I was supposed to do yoga and swim last night. That didn't happen because I had to meet the oil man about filling our oil tank with sand, and it was an ordeal and a long story. So, that being said, today was the day to get back to running.

The lake near work where I run - the pic just doesn't do it justice

Today my plan was to run 1/4 mile repeats at a 10k pace with 2 minute recovery in between. Total mileage was around 3.2 miles 

A couple of things -

*When I first started and actually, even before I went out there, I did NOT want to run and really, was just purely going because I am committed to a race. My SI joint/lower back was hurting so I was worried about that plus, I've just had a hard time getting motivated lately. 

*I normally run without music but since I've been lacking motivation, I thought today I would try something different. Music was awesome and I'm glad I did that. I think I might need to use it for a while to get back into it. Maybe that's why I've been so uninspired lately, I don't know. 

*I forgot my garmin so I decided to use Runkeeper on my phone. I liked it because it talked to me while I was running 




The thing I discovered is that it felt good to run and once I got moving, the pain my hip went away. Maybe that was just a pain from not running? The music felt really good and made me enjoy what i was doing, especially the last song, so I'm going to use that for a while. I was using running at meditation time but since I've been meditating 15 minutes in the morning, I'll give myself a break and enjoy what I'm doing. Lastly, running at a 10k pace for 2 minutes was hard. I wanted to run much much faster. I typically do quarter mile repeats at an 8 min/mile pace but honestly, my 10k pace is probably more 9:30-9:45/mile. I haven't run a 10k in a while, but I am probably pretty close. So to force myself to run at a 9:00 pace for 2 minutes was hard. I definitely wanted to run closer to 8 and had to constantly look at my phone and slow down. I've just trained myself to run full speed for short intervals. 

I had on pants today that I don't like to run in but only had "yoga" clothes so it was hot, but other than that, it was a good run. 


The thing I was thinking about today as I was running was how am I going to tackle Vegas. I can't decide if I want to run a 4/1 or if I want to do an 8/2. I guess I'll do my long run next week at an 8/2 and see how it feels. I still am not thinking I'll PR, but I just want to enjoy the race and feel good. We'll see. 

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

What to do now

Monday - rest day

*my legs were still a little sore and we had some stuff to do with the house yesterday, so I went ahead and took another rest day. I'm surprised at how sore my legs are but it's been a long time since I've really trained, so that's probably just the result. 


My next race is the Las Vegas Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon. This race will be a little different in that I am running it by myself. That means I'll be running a little faster and that's what makes me nervous. I have NOT been training as I normally would for a half marathon so I'm not sure how this is going to go. I'm a little nervous about the amount of pain I'm going to endure, and really, not beating my previous time. I'm still new enough to running that I pretty much PR every race. This may be the first race that I do not. I'm not one who believes in cramming training either, so I'm just going to get back on track, make the most of the 4 weeks I have, and enjoy myself. Vegas should be awesome. 

The next 4 weeks will look like this - 

November 6th
Monday - rest
Tuesday - yoga/30 swim 
Wednesday - 6 sets of 1/4 mile repeats at 10k pace
Thursday - yoga/cross training at lunch - i'm not sure what... maybe bike, maybe elliptical
Friday - 3 sets of 7 minute repeats with a recovery of 5 minutes
Saturday - rest - I have to be in richmond for a wedding
Sunday - 60-80 minutes of running at HM pace

November 13th
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - yoga/cross train
Wednesday - 4 x 1/4 mile repeats at 10k pace, 2 x 1/2 mile repeats at 10k pace
Thursday - yoga/cross train
Friday - 4-6 sets of 2 minute hill repeats
Saturday - yoga - I have yoga teacher training this weekend so I'll be doing yoga all weekend
Sunday - 10 miles at HM pace

November 20th
Monday - rest
Tuesday - yoga/cross train - this is going to be hard because I will be moving on this day. we'll see what happens
Wednesday - 6 x 1/4 mile repeats at 10k pace, run 15-20 minutes with 4-6 sets of 30 second strides
Thursday - yoga/cross train 
Friday - 6 x 3 minutes, recover 2-3 minutes
Saturday - yoga/cross train
Sunday - 55-65 minutes

OR

Monday - rest
Tuesday - 6 x 3 minutes, recover 2-3 minutes
Wednesday - yoga/cross train
Thursday - Turkey Trot 8k
Friday - rest
Saturday - 55-65 minute run
Sunday - rest

November 27th
Monday - run 30 minutes with 60" strides followed by 120" easy run
Tuesday - yoga/cross train
Wednesday - easy 5-7 miles
Thursday - who knows, I'll be in Boulder, CO
Friday - again, boulder, co
Saturday - travel to Las Vegas
Sunday - RACE

So that's what the next 4 weeks look like. Hopefully I can stay on track. I have to go to Richmond, VA, do a weekend of yoga teacher training, move from one house to another, and have thanksgiving. Busy busy! I'm enjoying all the things I get to do but will also be excited to rest once November is over!!

Monday, November 7, 2011

RnR Savannah Race Review

Rock'n'Roll races are my favorite. I've only done 1 half marathon that was not an RnR event, so I was super excited when I found out they were going to be in one of my favorite cities. Lots of people were there, especially bloggers, so you'll probably be reading a lot of race reviews. I think you're going to get a different perspective from everyone because, this being Savannah's first RnR, there were a couple of hiccups. Depending on one's patience, understanding and affinity for the city will probably help shape what they thought of the race and how it was put together.

Crowd - 


Let me start of by saying that when I saw that the race had sold out in August with 23,000 participants, I was a little nervous. Savannah is small. It's smaller than Charleston, which itself is small. The historic district is a little bubble, similar to New Orleans French Quarters, but on a much smaller scale. I've been to RnR's before, have seen the crowd, but they've all been in bigger cities that are used to having thousands of people. I also knew that this was Savannah's first big race, so again, my expectations were managed. 23k people in Savannah is A LOT. I mean, A LOT.

This was corral 19-20. So, at least 18 corrals were before us and I dont' know how many were behind us, but I think, at least 5-10 more. The streets were covered with people. Crowded. 

Honestly, for the amount of people that were there, I felt like it was fairly well organized, minus the expo fiasco that I will discuss in a minute. We started on time, and the corrals were moving up pretty quickly. The streets were crowded but I never felt trapped into the speed I was running, I could easily speed up or slow down at any point, and since we were running a 2/1, we were doing that a lot. Again, RnR has a pretty good system in place for making races run smoothly day of, Savannah was no exception. 

Expo - 

Here's where there was trouble. Savannah has an expo center across the river that's on it's own little island. It's obviously worked out well for them before, so they probably haven't had a lot of complaints. The major issue this weekend was that most runners probably couldn't get there until 3-4 pm, and they all tried to get on the ferry at the same time. The line to the ferry was wrapped around the riverfront and it seemed like we were never going to get to the expo. My fear was that we wouldn't make it in time to get our numbers and our race t-shirts. Obviously, they knew this was happening, so they made adjustments and opened up one of the dinner boats. That boat fit 600 people and I promise, that's how many people were on it. They took us across and we made it to the expo with 1 hour to spare. So, I got in line at 4:15 and arrived at the expo at 6 pm. 

Getting into the expo wasn't a big deal and getting my number was easy too. They had plenty of personnel and of course, lines went quickly. The expo itself was fairly crowded and annoying at times, but that's how every expo is at every big race I've ever done. I just know going into a big race, the expo is going to be wild. But I got a couple of cute shirts and found a yoga place in Savannah, so it was worth it!

Lastly, when leaving the expo, they had trolleys lined up outside waiting on us. We sat on the trolley for a good 30 minutes. I think they knew the masses were getting restless because they had a police escort clear the way and we got back to the historic district by 8 pm. So, it took 3 hours and 45 minutes to get to the expo, look around and get back. 

I am sure they will have an answer next year, I'm not sure what it will be. 


Race Course - 

I kind of struggle with this. I LOVE Savannah. It's one of my favorite places ever. It is so beautiful and I really can't think of another city that even mirrors anything like Savannah. Maybe Charleston, but I still like Savannah more. The architecture is beautiful, the huge oak trees with Spanish Moss and the artistic influence from Savannah College of Art and Design. I was HOPING the race course would primarily be in the historic district but sadly it wasn't. Actually, the first part of the course was going through a bad section of town. The thing that I thought when running through that area was how I felt bad for the people living there. There were people picking up the throw away clothes runners had thrown to the side. I just felt like there was so much more going on than the stupid race and I really wanted to just go up and hug all of the people on the street. That being said, they were all out there, in their yards, cheering us on, screaming, yelling out numbers and names and had such great attitudes and personalities! That was the best cheering section during the whole race. People were high fiving and they had 2 cheerleading squads that were so fun! So, obviously, my judgment on where they live was misguided as they seemed to be very happy and supportive people. 

It was pretty cool but it started to warm up the further we ran. At no point was I hot, so I obviously dressed appropriately! There were water/cytomax stations every couple of miles and  a Gu station between 8-9. I brought swedish fish with me which seem to be my favorite fuel right now. They're just more fun to eat. 

We finally ran through the historic district which was quick but beautiful and then headed to the rich side of town. The crowd was no where near as fun and supportive, although the trees/houses were beautiful. We ended running into Forsyth Park where they had lots of food and a concert. 

this was the nicer area, and I wanted to take a pic of the trees. They are so beautiful and this is what the streets look like everywhere!


Music - 

A couple of the bands were awesome, a couple of them were weak. I was wondering what kind of musical theme Savannah would offer, and there wasn't one really. I liked the bands on mile 3, 7 and 10 but haven't had a chance to go back and see who they are. Honestly, my fav part were the cheerleaders. And the spectators giving high 5's. that was my fav part. seriously. 


Mom - 

I had a really good time running with mom. This was her first half marathon and she is 54!!! Her goal was 2:45 and her official time was 2:45:02. She told me she struggled, especially at the end, but she seemed strong to me the whole time. We ran 2 minutes, walked 1 minuted and averaged at 12:38 pace. She was sore afterwards, but had no major injuries. Her hamstring has still be bothering her, but I would say, after your first half, to have one small nagging injury isn't half bad. She only yelled at me once, and that was at the end when I told her to pick up some speed. She did great and I had a really fun time running with her. 

me, post race

mom, post race, with her water bottle


All in all, I had a really good time. I would definitely do this again and hopefully, next year, they'll solve some technical issues. I'll probably also come a little earlier.